“Things like Sam & Max are wonderfully fabulous games, but they’re a little nichey in a way. But I think The Walking Dead really proved that there’s a large number of people out there who, if you build a game that’s accessible to them – build an adventure game that’s accessible to them – they will just flock to it.”

Gilbert said there will always be those who like classic-styled adventure games because “there’s a whole lot that is really cool and neat and interesting about those” but that there’s another large group who would enjoy more “visceral moment-to-moment gameplay”.

“And it’s not to say that it’s action. There’s nothing about playing The Cave that you’re going to fail doing jumps, or you’re never having to time double jumps or anything like that,” he said.

“It’s just that act of being able to run around and jump on stuff – it keeps one part of our brain really engaged the whole time, and it frees up the other part of our brain to puzzle solve a little bit more.”

Gilbert, creator of the Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion series, is working on The Cave at Double Fine; the new adventure is due out through Sega in January, for PC, PlayStation 3, Wii U and Xbox 360.